


i choose you

by sleepthruthenight



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - The Selection Fusion, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Kiyoko and Yachi sisterly friendship, M/M, Oikawa has no friends
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 19:48:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29796987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepthruthenight/pseuds/sleepthruthenight
Summary: One prince. Forty-seven suitors. Who will Prince Oikawa Tooru choose?Iwaizumi Hajime hopes it's not him.
Relationships: Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru, Shimizu Kiyoko & Yachi Hitoka
Comments: 6
Kudos: 16





	1. the beginning

Introduction

It is now the year 2171. The world has just come out of yet another world war. Japan, which converted back to a traditional monarchy around the start of the century, has managed to stay strong throughout the past decade. However, the morale of the country has gone down due to the war, and citizens are unhappy.

Oikawa Tooru, Crown Prince of Japan, is about to come of age. With the coming of age comes the coming of a marriage. In a world where same-sex marriage has been legal in the country for over a hundred years now, no one would think twice about the Prince’s search for husband instead of a wife. 

The Selection was an old tradition that came about when the monarchy began to rule the country on its own for the first time in hundreds and hundreds of years. The Crown Prince at the time needed to find a queen consort, so he, along with their parents and their advisers, created The Selection as a method to not only find him a wife, but to spread nationalism throughout the country. It became a tradition until Tooru’s father found his own true love before he came of age, which led to the decision to not host a Selection for him. 

Tooru didn’t expect a Selection. His parents didn’t expect a Selection. But now, here they were, sitting in a meeting room discussing two things: the feelings of the Japanese people, and Tooru’s coming of age. Suddenly, those two were intertwined.

Tooru didn’t mind at all though. 47 (hopefully) hot guys coming to live with him for at least a few months. How bad could it be?

* * *

Chapter 1

Oh, this was bad. 

Hajime almost growled at his younger sister when she said, “Ooh, onii-chan’s going to fall in love!”

It wasn’t a secret that Hajime was gay. No one even considered sexuality a secret anymore. But in that moment, he wished he wasn’t so open about it.

“No, I won’t!” he practically yelled back at her.

His mom whacked him on the head. “Hajime! Stop being rude to your sister.”

He wasn’t about to fight his mother, so he just crossed his arms and stayed silent as he and his family continued to watch the news.

“Oikawa Tōru Denka will be randomly selecting 47 young men from around the country, one from each prefecture, to compete against each other to become his future husband,” the newscaster stated. “We will now be passing it over to Michimiya Yui.”

After a short transition, a different lady appeared on the screen. “Good evening everyone,” Michimiya started. “We are currently live at the Tōkyō Imperial Palace, where Oikawa Tōru Denka will be answering questions regarding The Selection that was announced by the Palace earlier this afternoon.”

The camera shifted from Michimiya to a stage, where a young man started walking to the middle of. He held himself so upright, and he had this very pompous demeanor. It could be no other than Oikawa Tooru.

Hajime hated him.

He felt a little nudge coming from his side, and he turned to once again, see a teasing smirk on his younger sister, Hanako’s face. “Are you sure you don’t find him cute?” she teased.

Hajime glared at her. “No.”

“Not even a little?”

“No.

Hanako rolled her eyes. “You can’t even admit that he’s attractive?”

Hajime sighed. “I can’t deny that he’s… good looking. But he’s not my type. I wouldn’t date someone like him.”

It was true. He couldn’t stand the overconfident and perfect front that the prince put on. He probably wouldn’t be able to stand it even more if that wasn’t just a front and he actually acted like that. No matter how physically attractive someone could be, he couldn’t bring himself to constantly be around someone who had a shitty personality.

“Dang, Hajime, you’re really missing out if you don’t take this chance. What if he’s your soulmate and because you decided to not enter, you miss your shot at finding your person?” Hanako asked.

Hajime scoffed. “Pfft. As if he’d even have a chance.”

Suddenly, he heard shushes coming from his mom and sister as the prince began to clear his throat to speak.

“Good evening, Japan!” Prince Tōru greeted with a charming smile. Hajime huffed in disgust. “As we all know, I am here to address the statement that was made this afternoon by Tennō Heika and Kōgō Heika. I am very pleased to announce from my own mouth that the royal family will be hosting a Selection, the first one since my grandfather’s, to help me find a suitable prince consort, as my 20th birthday will be coming soon.”

The crowd on the TV cheered. Hajime groaned. 

“Men, ages 18-22, from every prefecture will be able to enter to win my hand. Whether they’re from Hokkaido all the way up north, or from Kagoshima all the way down south, or from the island of Okinawa, or even from here in Tōkyō, all qualifying men will be able to make it into the competition after an initial application round, which is then followed by the random selecting of names from baskets,” the prince explained. He continued to explain the basics of the competition for a bit, and then took his sweet time to answer questions from the reporters.

Hajime looked at the clock. A whole  _ hour _ had passed since they turned on the TV. It had only been an hour? ‘How much longer can this guy talk?’ he thought. After 30 more seconds of mentally complaining, he blurted out, “I’m  _ hungry _ . Can’t we just eat dinner already and turn off that damn TV?”

His mother was about to scold him for using the word “damn” in the house like that, when Hanako shushed them both.

“Fine, but wait! I just wanna hear him answer one more question, then we can eat,” Hanako said.

“Okay, I’ll set the table then,” Hajime replied. Sometimes, he couldn’t believe that Hanako was 17 already. By the way she was acting, she seemed like a lovestruck 13 year old girl who’s obsessed with whoever’s the most popular J-Pop group at the time. He honestly thought that it was sad that even she was able to fall into the trap of being obsessed with Oikawa Tooru.

“Denka, what do you say to any of the men out there who are excited to have a chance to become your husband?” he heard a news reporter ask as he took out the plates from the cabinet. For some reason, his head turned to the TV.

“Well…” The prince’s expression changed from his bright and giddy one to… Hajime couldn’t even tell what it was. “I have faith in you.”

Hajime froze for a second. What the hell? What was that choice of words. And why did he sound so… 

He shook his head, trying to rid his mind of the thought. He quickly walked over to where the remote was and turned off the TV. “That’s it. No more. Time to eat.”

Hanako groaned as she stood up and made her way to the barely set table. Hajime gave her some chopsticks to lay out before heating up some food in the microwave.

“Onii-chan, are you actually not going to enter?” Hanako asked after a bit of silence.

Hajime looked her in the eye. “There is not a chance in this world of me even opening the application.”

Hanako gave him a devilish grin. “Okay.”

Hajime looked at her for a moment, puzzled by her facial expression, before he heard the microwave go off. 

* * *

“Denka, are you ready?” One of the showrunners asked Tooru.

He flashed a smile back at her. “Yep!”

The showrunner smiled back, her expression showing enough fluster that Tooru wanted to chuckle. “Got it, thanks,” she replied before scurrying away quickly.

Before he could even think about that interaction, the lights suddenly went up and were shining on him. Cameras were starting to turn on him. As if it were muscle memory, his hands tried to straighten out his already very straightened suit.

“Everyone ready?” the head cameraman asked everyone who was on set.

A chorus of “yep”s and “yeah”s filled the room as Tooru got ready for this exciting, yet nerve wracking moment. He wanted to know who would be in the competition as much as everyone else did, but at the same time, what if he didn’t end up falling in love with any of these 47 guys? Again, there wasn’t enough time to think before he heard a “se no” from the cameraman and the cameras were rolling. He quickly put on his trained camera-ready smile.

“Good evening Japan,” he started. “Tonight, we will be doing the long-awaited drawing of the names for the Selection!” He began to move over to a bunch of tables with a bunch of baskets on them. “Here we have 47 baskets, with each basket holding all of the applications for one prefecture. The baskets are then separated into groups, which are the tables. The tables represent each region of Japan, and I will be opening the envelopes and reading the names after I pick out names from each prefecture in that region.” He moved over to the first table, which only had one basket on it. “We will go from north to south, starting with Hokkaidō region and prefecture.”

Tooru stuck his hand in the basket, and pulled out an envelope while trying to hide any signs of nervousness he showed. Since there was only one prefecture in the region, it was already time for him to open the first envelope. Once it was opened, he read the name:

“From Hokkaidō, Mr. Kozume Kenma.”

Tooru wanted to frown at the paper. There was only a name and the prefecture. That was it. No additional information or anything. He assumed he’d probably get that additional information in tomorrow’s meeting with his parents and advisors.

After a round of applause, he moved to the next table.

“Now onto Tōhoku region,” he announced.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.

For some reason, he felt a tiny bit more nervous for this region. He didn’t really know why. Ignoring that, he began to open the envelopes one by one and started reading them.

“From Aomori, Mr. Matsukawa Issei.”

“From Iwate, Mr. Hanamaki Takahiro.”

“From Miyagi, Mr. Iwaizumi Hajime.”

* * *

Up north in Miyagi, someone’s heart felt like it dropped ten stories down. And not in a good way.

That person was Iwaizumi Hajime.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! This idea randomly came to me, so I had to write it. The Selection is my favorite book series ever, and the IwaOi brainrot has been real lately, so it was bound that my mind would end up connecting the two.
> 
> I hope I'm using the honorifics for royalty correctly! I'm kinda just using what I know from another royalty IwaOi AU I read (the chrysanthemum looking glass by izayas - go read it! https://archiveofourown.org/works/27054028?view_full_work=true). If I'm using them wrong, please correct me and I will fix it!
> 
> Comment what characters you want to see in the next chapter - I've only introduced 4 contestants so far, and I have to fill in the 43 other spots!
> 
> I'll probably be taking a lot of random stuff from The Selection novels and implementing them in the story. Not that I'm intentionally taking plot points, I've read the books enough that stuff's just going to come to mind. I might reread them on the way tho, but I'll try to not make things too similar! Also shoutout to Eadlyn Schreave for giving us the POV from the host's side, otherwise it would be kinda hard to give Oikawa some screen time in this story.
> 
> (Also side note - if you're coming here from my other fic "prom dress", I'm so sorry I haven't finished it! If anyone would like me to finish it, I definitely will. It's been a while!)
> 
> Thank you for continuing to support me and my work :]


	2. a new journey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> denka = honorific for prince  
> Kiyozu = Oikawa's nickname for Kiyoko

Hajime’s jaw dropped when he heard his name.

_ What the fuck? _

He never had any intention of entering the Selection. He didn’t even look up the application. He didn’t care for the Prince at all, he never did. He wanted the annoying guy on his TV to stay the annoying guy on his TV. Not as an acquaintance, not as a friend, and certainly not as a romantic partner. 

From the corner of his eye, he saw that same devilish grin on Hanako’s face that he saw two weeks ago.

“Hanako,” he said sternly.

“Yes,” Hanako replied with amusement in her voice.

“Why did I just hear him say my name?”

Hanako shrugged. “Maybe it was just meant to be!” she said with a grin.

Hajime turned to face his sister and looked straight into her eyes. “ _ Why did I just hear him say my name? _ ” he asked her, the anger rising in his voice.

Hanako began to run away.

Hajime got up and chased her. “HANAKO!”

He chased her up the stairs until he was stopped by a door being slammed in his face. He then heard a lock come from said door. Repeatedly banging his fist against the door, he screamed again, even louder, “ _ HANAKO!” _

All of a sudden, he felt a whack against his head. After muttering a small “ow”, he turned around to see his angry mother behind him. She grabbed him by the shirt and yelled, “YOU ARE  _ TWENTY  _ YEARS OLD AND YOU STILL ACT LIKE THIS? ESPECIALLY TOWARDS YOUR YOUNGER SISTER? AND RIGHT AFTER YOU RECEIVED A WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY? SHOW SOME MATURITY!”

Hajime just sat there in silence. He knew there was no arguing with his mom. His eyes followed her as she began to firmly knock on Hanako’s door.

“Hanako, open up,” she commanded.

After a few seconds, Hanako shyly opened her door. As soon as it was open, Hajime felt himself being dragged by his wrist into his sister’s room.

“Hanako, do you know why your onii-chan was entered into the competition even though he never entered it himself?” their mom asked.

Hesitantly, Hanako replied, “I just…” She turned her head to face Hajime. “Onii-chan doesn’t show it very often, but I know he wants a cute love story as much as I would like one.”

Hajime furrowed his eyebrows. How did she know? Did she hear the music he sometimes listens to? Maybe eavesdropped on one of his calls where he might’ve said something? Was it just a sibling connection thing? Who knows. He decided that was a conversation for another time.

Hanako started awkwardly playing with her hair. “I wish I had the opportunity to compete to marry the prince. Or royalty in general. Onii-chan’s lucky.” She paused to sigh. “He’s never even had a boyfriend yet. I thought that this was going to give him his chance at finding love,” she admitted.

Hajime blinked. “I, uh… I appreciate the idea but…” Suddenly, a realization struck him.

“There’s no backing out of this, is there?” He wasn’t sure if he was asking his sister, his mom, himself, or all of them. “Like… wasn’t it in the rules that if you got picked, you couldn’t leave unless the Prince dismissed you himself?”

Hanako nodded. “Yeah.”

Hajime brought a hand to his forehead. “Out of everyone in the prefecture… and I didn’t even enter myself,” he mumbled.

“What can I say? I just bring good luck!” Hanako said with an annoying grin.

Hajime snorted. “When have you ever brought me good luck?”

Hanako blew a raspberry as Hajime laughed. 

What a pain in the ass.

* * *

The lights dimmed down and Tooru finally felt like he was able to breathe. After 47 names later, his mouth was dry, and all he wanted was some water. He grabbed a bottle of water from the bucket of waterbottles meant for everyone on the set, until someone stopped him.

“Denka!” Tooru turned his head towards the voice. Ah. Yachi Hitoka. Yachi was one of the newer maids in the Palace. He had been seeing her around more and more often lately. He understood her to be Kiyozu’s new protégé, which explained why she was able to move up the maid ranks fairly quickly. He also knew Yachi’s mom was one of the new palace representatives, but he wasn’t really sure if that had to deal with Yachi’s position. She was probably the youngest and least experienced maid in the room. Not many maids got to serve the royal family as closely as this. “Allow me to get you a proper glass of water,” she said with panic in her voice.

Tooru gave her a warm smile. “It’s okay, Yachi-san. Reading out 47 names without water was hard, so I don’t mind getting one of these waterbottles to hydrate myself.”

Yachi bowed. “Understood, denka. If there’s anything I can do to help, please let me know.”

Tooru bowed back. “Thank you.” He looked up to see Kiyozu on the sidelines. He gave her a small thumbs up, showing his approval of her apprentice. She gave him a small smile back. She rarely ever smiled, and Tooru made it a challenge to get her to smile every time he saw her. Challenge completed for the day.

After Tooru finished his waterbottle, he began to walk through the set. The crew had been working hard at doing a quick and efficient cleanup. The only items that were pretty much left were the baskets on the table, as well as the chosen names, each name lying in front of its basket. 

_ Those names. _

He wanted to get to know each of them. He didn’t want them to just be names on a paper. Soon enough, they wouldn’t be, but he simply just couldn’t wait. 

Being born into royalty meant that he never really got to see the outside world. If he wanted to satisfy a food craving, state-of-the-art chefs were right in his kitchen. If he wanted to go to the park, there were endless gardens in his backyard. If he wanted to make a purchase from the internet, he got same day delivery. Everything he ever wanted and needed was in the comfort of his own home. And as a result of that, he had no friends because he never got to go anywhere. There were the children from other political and prominent families, domestic and abroad, but he didn’t see them or talk to them that often. Sure, there was his older sister Tsuzumi and her son Takeru, but that was it. 

Outside of his family, he had no actual friends.

Maybe that was why he was so excited? Of course he wants to find his one true love, but only one out of the 47 young men chosen would be his one true love. The other 46 would hopefully be his friends. He sighed, it felt pathetic that for almost 20 years, he had no friends. He wanted to make the most out of the time he was going to have with each of them. 

* * *

A week has passed since Hajime found out that he was going to be in the Selection. Since then, he’s gotten countless messages from friends and family that mostly said “Congratulations!”, “I didn’t think you were the type to enter the contest”, “We’re rooting for you!” At school, he noticed that everyone would turn and look at him whenever he walked by, which never happened before (except for occasional head turns from a few people due to his good looks). He also saw a spike in followers on his Instagram, which wasn’t even revealed to the public. He assumed that people must've been looking him up on the Internet. 

Over the past few days, he forced himself to accept the fact that  _ this was his reality now _ . Even if he was eliminated early, a spotlight would be following him for at least a little while. Hopefully, he would be able to try to remove himself from the public eye after his elimination, but the existence of paparazzi would try to make it hard.

Hajime looked at himself in the mirror, making sure he looked neat and professional. A royal official was supposed to be visiting his house in the next half hour or so to give him and his mom (and an eavesdropping Hanako) the last bit of information about the competition he would need before heading off to the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

After what felt like the longest half hour ever, the doorbell rang. “I’ll get it,” he called out to his mom before scurrying down the stairs. Once he got to the door, he opened it to a middle-aged lady, maybe a little younger than his mom, who was carrying a briefcase.

He bowed to her. “Good afternoon,” he said before going back to a neutral stance. “Please come in,” he told her before making room for her to come inside.

“Thank you,” she said kindly.

He guided her to a chair at the dining room table. “Please make yourself comfortable.” As she was taking her seat, he asked, “Would you like some tea?”

She smiled. “Yes, that would be wonderful, thank you.”

He went to the kitchen to begin brewing a pot of tea. He heard his mom come downstairs and greet the official. Once the kettle was on the stove, he returned to the table while the two women were in the middle of light conversation.

He smiled out of politeness. “I’m very sorry for interrupting, but would it be okay if we started now?” he asked.

The official nodded. “Yes definitely.”

“Great,” Hajime replied as he took his own seat at the table, with his mom taking the seat next to him.

“Why don’t we start with introductions?” The official asked, receiving two nods in return. She smiled. “My name is Yachi Madoka, and I am a representative of the Imperial Palace of Japan. And I assume you are Iwaizumi Hajime,” she said, looking at Hajime.

“Yes,” he replied.

“Great! Well first of all, congratulations on being chosen to partake in The Selection. You are a very lucky young man,” she said.

Hajime put on a smile that he feared wasn’t genuine enough. “Thank you very much, Yachi-san.”

“You’re welcome,” Yachi-san replied before reaching down to grab her briefcase. She placed it on the table and opened it. She took out a stack of papers, each of them being different contracts for the competition. Hajime’s eyes went large at the sight of all of the papers.

Yachi-san let out a small chuckle. “I know it might seem overwhelming, but hopefully it’ll be quick. So as you already know, you already consented to a few things upon submitting your application and signing it electronically. As a reminder, we’ll go over them right now.”

Hajime wanted to laugh. He never actually consented to anything. That was all Hanako. But what can he do now?

The kettle started whistling, and his mom offered to get up and prepare the rest of the tea. Despite his mom not being there, Yachi-san decided to continue.

“First, you know you cannot leave the competition unless the Prince dismisses you himself. Any exception to this is an emergency in your immediate family, or if anything tragic were to happen to you during the Selection. Second, you may not, under any circumstances, be seen having any romantic or sexual relations with anyone else except the Prince. That is considered treason, and you will be subject to consequences of the law. Third, during the competition, you will not be allowed any communication via the Internet. You will not be able to access your phone or any other electronic device, unless if it’s provided by the Palace. This means you won’t be able to access any social media for the duration of your time in the Selection. Please understand that we need this rule to keep personal relationships within the Palace private and to avoid rumors. If you need to contact your mother or any other immediate family member, you must request it through the Prince. Are there any questions so far?” Yachi-san explained and asked.

Hajime took a second for himself. He certainly did not know any of that, and it was a lot of information to process. However, he couldn’t say anything but, “No, I have no questions.”

Yachi-san smiled. “Okay. Now let’s move to the first contract,” she said.

-

After about 20 minutes that felt more like an hour, Hajime was done listening to Yachi-san talk, and already signed all of the papers. There weren’t too many things to sign - half of the stack were just copies for him to keep. He mainly had to give personal information. One thing he was happy about was that his education would be put on hold right now, and once the competition was over, no matter the result, he would be able to finish his degree at University. He also had to consent to things, such as photo release (they were going to be uploading photos of the contestants on the Internet later that evening), understanding that he was basically government property once he stepped onto the plane going to Tokyo, and…

Not being able to say no to whatever the Prince asks of you. 

Yachi-san made it clear to him that that statement excluded sexual activity between him and the Prince. In fact, the Prince took a vow of chastity upon becoming a teenager, so he shouldn’t be having sex anyway, so Hajime shouldn’t have to worry about anything.

That part relieved Hajime, but he was still a little uncomfortable with the fact that a part of his freedom was taken away whenever he was with the Prince. Although the Prince seemed like he had a shitty personality, he hoped he wasn’t just a flat out asshole.

Yachi-san packed up her suitcase and stood up. “Thank you so much Iwaizumi-kun and Iwaizumi-san for having me,” she said, bowing.

Both Iwaizumis bowed back. “It was our pleasure,” Hajime replied. He opened the door for the blonde.

Yachi-san smiled. “Remember that you have three days before you’re sent off to the airport. I wish you the best of luck, Iwaizumi-kun! I’ll be rooting for you!” 

After saying their goodbyes, Hajime closed the door.

Three days. That was such a short amount of time. 

Well, time to start packing.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry I know this is one of the more boring and filler chapters, but we need context. again, if there's any characters you want to see in upcoming chapters, let me know in the comments!
> 
> thank you so much for reading :]


End file.
